The Sole Personal
Presence and Rule of Christ
in the Soul Defines the Kingdom
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“The kingdom
of God cometh not with observation:
Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or,
lo there! For, behold, the
kingdom of god is within
you.” Luke
17:20,21.
“Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God.” Matthew 4:4.
Christ Defines the
Kingdom of Heaven
We enter into the
kingdom by entering into full
surrender to Christ. Christ
defines the kingdom by His person and
presence. Man does
not define the kingdom of God,
as the Jesuits have sought to do.
The Great King of His
Kingdom
“I am a great
King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my
name is dreadful among the
heathen.” Malachi 1:14.
The kingdom involves
necessarily at its center, a King.
The King at the heart of the kingdom
of God is none other than God
Himself. “For the LORD is a
great God, and a great King above all
gods.” Psalm 95:3. This God is,
on the sure Word of the Lord, a Godhead.
God is the Father, Whose work is
to reveal the awesome transcendence,
glory, might and power of the
Godhead; God the Son, Who,
omnipotent, and omniscient Himself,
and possessing the fullness of the
Godhead bodily, in awesome glory and
splendor, has as His work in the
Godhead to reveal the character of
God on a close, personal basis to the
creature; and God the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of full liberty and truth,
Who is everywhere present, and has
the work of impressing upon the
hearts of the creatures the
revelation of God.
Space for the Soul
As one truly
surrenders his heart, soul, will,
mind and strength to Christ, he
experiences the incredible freedom
and space that Christ, the Author of
freedom gives. Many today are
snapping because they feel that they
have no space for their soul. Where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty, infinite liberty, and
infinite space.
Modern Man’s
Elimination of Space for the Soul
Modern man, in his
autonomy from God, lost this freedom,
and descended into the realm of
mechanistic determinism, the
philosophical concept where man is
seen as locked in by cause and
effect, a concept which paved the way
for the rise of pantheism, Marxism,
with its historical determinism, and
the appearance of Buddhism, with its
concepts of karma, in the Western
world. When people feel closed in,
locked in, they get desperate, and
commit desperate acts.
Post-modern Culture
Rejects the Very Idea That There Can
Be a Worldview; A Generation Retreats
Into Delusion and Irrational Activism
Postmodernism is the
nihilistic attempt of the new
generation to rebel, and completely
reject the idea that there can even be
a rational worldview. It is a
revival of the Age of Irrational
Activism with fury, concepts that
unleashed Nazism in Germany in the
1930s, with many additional demonic,
spiritualistic features. A generation
is retreating into an unreal world of
imagination and delusion, a world of
utter irrational activism, in which,
by the assertion of the will they
hope to attain freedom, even if it
means death.
Gothic Culture
Erupting Into Terrible Violence
Hence we see the rise
of such movements among the youth as
the demonic Gothic movement, with its
black clothes, heavy chains, and
leather fighting gloves, and glaring,
hostile eyes. At times these things
erupt into terrible, open sadistic
violence, as at Columbine and
Virginia Tech.
Entering the Realm of
God’s Freedom Through the Strait
Gate of Self-surrender
But the person who
surrenders himself fully to Christ,
enters through the strait gate into a
glorious realm of God’s freedom,
a world of omnipotent power made
available to his will in doing
God’s will. “When the human
will co-operates with the will of
God, it becomes
omnipotent…” YI 6-24-97.
“As the will of man co-operates
with the will of God, it becomes
omnipotent. Whatever is to be done at
His command may be accomplished in
His strength. All His biddings are
enabling.” COL 333. The
possession of omnipotent power in
Christ, the Author of freedom, means
freedom for the soul, true freedom,
space for the soul to live, breathes,
and maneuver.
Christ Is the I AM,
Reality
For the true disciple
of Christ, Christ is Reality. Christ
is Who He claimed to be-the great I
AM, the One Who in His glorious
divine person is the truth. (John
14:6), is Reality himself.
Therefore, the person who is a member
of Christ’s kingdom has a basis
for freedom in all his relationships
with other people, for now all of
life passes through the Mediator, who,
in His awesome Person and power,
buffers all relationships.
Infinite Value in Deep
Prayer
We must now revive
deep prayer. We live in a society
that does not see value in prayer,
but for a member of Christ’s
kingdom there is infinite value
in prayer to the great King. Deep
prayer becomes absolutely
fascinating. For it unleashes
infinite power, it opens to us the
world of God Himself, the most
fascinating Being in the universe.
Prayer > Faith >
Key That Unlocks the Divine Treasury
“The summing up
of the benefit of prayer is that
devotion that leads to faith in
God’s promises. This faith is
the key that opens the
divine treasury, is the hand
by which we appropriate to
our use the richest gifts of God. The
prayer of the contrite heart unlocks
the treasure house of supplies, and
lays hold of omnipotent power. This
kind of prayer enables the suppliant
to understand what it means
to lay hold of the strength of God,
and to make peace with Him. This
kind of prayer causes us to have an
influence over those with whom we
associate. The prayer of faith is
not listless, dry, and uninteresting.
It wells up from perfect trust
and assurance, and by its fervor
makes manifest to the world, to
angles, and to men, that you believe
in God, and have made Christ your
personal Savior. The Lord Jehovah
accepts the argument that is
presented in the name of his Son, and
places the resources of his
merit at your command.” ST
6-18-96.
God Entrusted The
Operation of the Weather to the Word
of Elijah
At one time, in the
time of Elijah, God even entrusted
the power of the weather, the power
of giving rain and dew to the world,
to the word of a man of faith and
prayer, Elijah. “And Elijah the
Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants
of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the
LORD God of Israel liveth, before
whom I stand, there shall not be dew
nor rain these years, but according
to my
word.” 1 Kings 17:1.
“His word locked the treasures
of heaven, the dew and rain, from the
earth three years. His word
alone was the key to
unlock heaven and bring showers of
rain.” 3T 287, 288.
“Elijah had locked heaven
with his word and had
taken the key with him, and he could
not be found.” 3T 286.
Sermon on the Mount
Gives a Right Conception of
Christ’s Kingdom
In the Sermon on the
Mount Jesus opened to the people who
belong to the kingdom of heaven.
“In the Sermon of the Mount He
sought to undo the work that had been
wrought by false education, and to give
His hearers a right conception of His
kingdom and of His own character. He
told them the conditions of
entrance therein, leaving
them to draw their own conclusions as
to its nature. The truths He
taught are no less important to us
than to the multitude that followed
Him. We no less than they need
to learn the foundation principles of
the kingdom of God.” DA
299.
Conditions of Entrance
Into the Kingdom: Blessed are the
Beggars in Spirit
“Blessed are the
poor [beggars, in Greek] in
spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.” Matthew 5:3. Only those
who feel their need of Christ, who
realize that all they have done has
been contaminated with self and sin,
only those who realize that they have
nothing to commend themselves to God,
and need the help that Christ can
give – only these are
members of the kingdom. Thus the very
first step in the kingdom is the
renunciation of all dependence upon
self, the stripping away of all
self-sufficiency, and the
whole-hearted acceptance of Christ.
Only Those Stripped of
All Self-sufficiency Can Receive the
Gift God is Waiting to Bestow
The Lord can do
nothing toward the recovery of man
until, convinced of his own weakness,
and stripped of all
self-sufficiency, he yields
himself to the control of God. Then
he can receive the gift that God is
waiting to bestow. From the soul that
feels his need, nothing is withheld.
He has unrestricted access to Him in
whom all fullness dwells.” DA
300.
Christianity a
Disturbing Element to Those Who
Refuse His Infinite Love
“Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness’
sake: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.” Matthew 5:10.
“The world loves sin, and hates
righteousness, and this was the cause
of its hostility to Jesus. All who
refuse His infinite love will find
Christianity a disturbing element.
The light of Christ sweeps away the
darkness that covers their sins, and
the need of reform is made manifest.
While those who yield to the
influence of the Holy Spirit begin
war with themselves, those who cling
to sin war against the truth and its
representatives.
“Thus strife
is created, and Christ’s
followers are accused as troublers
of the people. But it is fellowship
with God that brings them the
world’s enmity. They are
treading the path that has been
trodden by the noblest of the
earth.” DA 306.
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